Senior sports reporter with The Age

The verdict is in: John Hawkes is convinced All Too Hard is No. 1. Photo: Pat Scala

THE battle for the title of the nation's top three-year-old remains in the balance, with the result to be determined in the autumn.

It is then that Golden Slipper winner and Cox Plate third placegetter Pierro will almost certainly meet his conqueror in the Caulfield Guineas and Cox Plate runner-up All Too Hard.

But one man convinced the verdict is already in is master trainer John Hawkes who, along with his sons Wayne and Michael, prepares All Too Hard, the Nathan Tinkler-owned half-brother to wonder Black Caviar.

Hawkes said the colt's narrow defeat in the Cox Plate by the year older Ocean Park felt almost as good as a win, and with Pierro almost four lengths in arrears he believes his three-year-old has now established himself as the best of his year.

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And he reminded the critics who condemned him for missing the Golden Slipper with the horse six months ago that the decision had been vindicated by the Casino Prince colt's performances during the spring.

Team Hawkes dodged the helter-skelter of the Slipper (won by Gai Waterhouse's Pierro) fearing such a high-pressure race could flatten a developing young galloper.

There were plenty ready to argue the Hawkes camp had missed its chance as All Too Hard failed to salute in four successive starts, including defeats by Pierro in the group 1 Sires' Produce Stakes and group 3 Run to the Rose in Sydney during the autumn and spring.

But All Too Hard's success at Caulfield proved he was getting stronger, and Saturday's Cox Plate run proved he was still improving and covered the 2040-metre trip well.

"He proved he's the best. They talk about Pierro's the best, well we are better than him, always were," Hawkes senior said on Saturday.

The Pierro camp is not about to concede — far from it. Owner Greg Kolivos has enjoyed a wonderful ride with the gutsy son of Lonhro, who has earned more than $3.5 million in his 10 starts. Pierro has never finished further back than third, winning his first eight races, including Sydney's two-year-old triple crown.

"When he came to explode round the bend [at the Valley] he just had to wind into it, he didn't ping like he normally would," Kolivos said. "He kept coming, he ran the trip, it's such a gutsy run considering where he's come from."